My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 31-“Bring Dem Things”

“F**k with me this summer” I shot as a response to her text message on a late-June morning. After four years of ups, downs, false-starts, double-backs, fights, sentimental moments, and a shit ton of drama, enough was enough. In this time, there were many others-for both of us-there was no better time to give us […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care-“It’s On Tonight”

Sam Salter’s “It’s On Tonight” reminds me of my first stage in adolescence. It sounds like a Vaughn Harper introduced throughout his quiet storm radio show, while I sat in the passenger’s side of my parents’ cars, as we voyaged from Manhattan to our apartment in Queens on a summer night. I loved these drives […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 29-“Don’t Go”

As absurd as it may sound, one of the most romantic phrases a man can and will say is “don’t go;” to a great extent, in the first stages of courtship. Time will progress and the sentiment may evolve into “I’m not going anywhere.” It may not be verbose and underwhelms, based on expectations from […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 28-“I’ll Do Anything/I’m Sorry”

The best place to begin is to rehash a short essay from my series, #Summer97. It is the reason “I’ll Do Anything/I’m Sorry” was selected by Spotify as part of My Summer Rewind playlist… For the longest time, I thought it was Aaliyah who danced alongside Ginuwine in his music video for “I’ll Do Anything/I’m […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 27-“Antidote”

A few minutes before we arrived at any contest of sport, Courtney and Cydney knew what to expect. With my Jeep’s stereo on full blast, they were conditioned to charge up as soon as the guitar riff looped, and mumble “Don’t you open up the window,” well-aware all four were about to be rolled down. […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 26-“Lemonade”

When life gives you lemons, you make lemon pepper wings with the freeze cups. For days, I have attempted to find direction for this Gucci Mane-inspired prompt. I found it ironic most of my ideas were cliched lemons. I could speak with eloquence and use pejorative terms to make the phrase “when life gives you […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 25-“Seen It All”

I said my final goodbye to my grandmother yesterday. About 30 minutes away from the burial site, the alternator in my mother’s car gave out; therefore, my mother, Cydney, and were unable to attend. Before the alternator ceased, we managed to make it to safety, parked, and waited for a tow service at a gas […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 24-“Shake Dat Je’llo”

Life is too serious to be serious…this credo is indoctrinated into my moral code. If you spend enough time around a person, they will do something stupid. As my grandmother once said, “A life with no mistakes means you can’t learn from anything. And if you didn’t make mistakes, life wouldn’t be fun.” Those wise […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 23-“Rescue Me”

In the second essay of my Ode to Self-Care series, I paused the direction of the piece, and vowed to delve more into detail about the story at another time. Today is the day. Before I begin, I should give a brief synopsis: A week before her permanent move out of state, I gave Fly […]

My Summer Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 22-“Waves”

New Year’s Eve, 1997. A few hours before the ball dropped, I sat in my parents’ bedroom to watch my favorite rap group, Bone Thugs -N-Harmony on BET’s Planet Groove. After a performance of “Look Into My Eyez,” Cleveland’s finest sat on the couch with my former wife to be, Rachel Stuart to promote their […]